In this week’s Kin by Julian Jones, familiar tropes are regurgitated as the show tries valiantly to make its way to the season finale. With knowledge of the show’s cancellation, it gets easier and easier to find fault with what still manages to entertain. Indeed, in many respects, Kin works as a standalone story. It fails only in consideration of the bigger picture.

This episode explores Jason’s (Jack Donnelly) relationship with the dark side of his character, and the place for the gods and superstition. Pasiphae (Sarah Parish) is looking increasingly unsure of herself despite ruling Atlantis, and is being undermined by Medea (Amy Manson) who is distracted by her desire for Jason. To put matters right, Pythagoras (Robert Emms) has brought Jason’s father, Aeson (John Hannah) into play and we are even treated to the line ‘Jason, I am your father’!

Apart from rescuing Jason’s sole, much of the episode is taken up with yet another foray into the arena, and while is it fair to say Jason is much more anti-here than hero, viewers have had enough of these arena sequences. What this episode lacks is originality in the context of the overall arc.

Meanwhile, Queen Ariadne (Aiysha Hart) and Hercules (Mark Addy) pass the time trying to be interesting in the forest, waiting for the end of season finale to come along. There are many shots of Atlantean guards hunting, but nothing feels very real – the show is almost entirely treading water.

This is all disappointing, and as a piece of one-off entertainment, this is still enjoyable. The acting of Hannah and Parish is admirable, Robert Lindsay shines in his brief scene from a city prison cell, and Icarus (Joseph Timms) still has more people to betray.